India, winners of 8 hockey gold medals, had never won an individual Olympic title before Abhinav Bindra’s success. India’s last Olympic gold medal was from hockey (8th gold) at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Indian President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leaders across the political class hailed the gold medal winning.

"We are very proud of our son. He has done a great thing for the country. We will be rushing to Delhi to receive him when he returns on Thursday," his mother Babli Mishra telling reporters, quoted BBC.